Efficient use of the KLUG mailing lists.

[Bruce Smith <bruce@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Let me start out by saying that I'm very happy to see so
many messages on the KLUG mailing list today, and I am 
NOT trying to discourage it's use.

However, when J. Doe KLUG subscriber checks their email 
for the first time today and downloads ~50 KLUG messages, 
s/he may not be as happy as I am.

I think if we tried to use the list a little more efficiently
we could save a lot of time and bandwidth for everyone.  Keep
in mind that every time you send a message to the "members"
list it goes to 173 people (just checked).  173 * 50 = 8650
messages sent today, and the day ain't over yet!   :-)

Please try to observe the following:

1)  We have a list especially for new Linux users to ask
    questions.  There is only 46 people on that list. A
    lot of questions today could have been sent there
    instead.  i.e.  mounting CDs and playing audio CDs.
    If in doubt, try sending to the novice list first,
    and if you don't like the response, send to "members".

2)  When sending a question to ANY list, try to include
    all information to help someone answer the question.
    
    a)  Explain the problem well, with exact error messages.

    b)  It helps to know what you're trying to accomplish
        instead of just the error so we can suggest alternate
        ways to solve your problem.

    c)  Anticipate questions and answer them up front!
        Information like "it works in windows, so the 
        hardware is fine", "sound works because I can play
        MP3's" and "I've already tried it as root, so it's 
        not the permissions" are nice to know up front so we 
        don't have to ask about it.  This saves a lot of time,
        bandwidth and total number of messages sent.

3)  Turn off MIME and send messages in plain text to save
    bandwidth and make them more readable.

Thank you in advance!

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
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